I have been thinking of getting a smaller cylinder for my splitter. Not as a replacement, but to swap out as needed. Use the small cylinder for more speed on the regular wood and the bigger one for tougher stuff. I can split 3-4 face cord an hour with the 4" cylinder. I could split about 10 face cord an hour with a 2.5" cylinder. The big one makes 4.5/20 tons and the small one would make 1.75/8 tons with low/high pressure. Most of my splitting is 5 tons or less, so I'm pretty confident it would work just fine, while using the high pressure stage a bit more often for the extra tonnage when needed. 2.5x faster means a lot more time to go fishing/hunting. Anyone want to share their thoughts?
should do exactly what you want it to i don't see any issues. Quick couplers and pins a swap would only take a couple of minutes.
Smaller cylinder is going to force the pump into low range earlier, probably negating most of the gained speed. Might better put a bigger pump on it
At less than 1/2 the cylinder area even if the pump is dumping more frequently there will be a increase in speed.
You can also decrease the sensitivity of the pump, so it takes more force to switch to 2nd stage. I split with a 3” cylinder. It has taught me to read the grain.
How about a larger pump on your current cylinder ? Thats if your engine will handle a larger one. Just a thought.
I am using a 3hp electric motor right now, and it's maxed out. It makes 11 gpm until about 700 psi and then shifts to 1.8 gpm. I have been working on the numbers and it would kick down a lot, but would still be about twice as fast, even if it shifted for 3" of travel on every piece. A 3" might be better because it wouldn't kick down so much.
A 3" cylinder would have to kick down for 5" of travel to be as slow as the 4". A 2.5" cylinder would have to kick down for 10" to be the same as the 4". The 2.5" cylinder only has a 1.25" rod and that makes me shy away from it because it might bend. The other two are 1.5" rods. Cycle times: 4" - 11 seconds 3" - 5.8 seconds 2.5"- 4 seconds It looks like the 3" might be the way to go for the best balance of tonnage, speed, and strength.
Agreed. Unless you split elm regularly, I think you will still not shift the pump into "low flow/high pressure" mode very often. If I ever need a new cylinder for my Champion 23 ton, I'm going smaller diameter...
Well, have you ever heard the term, "speed kills"? I am not saying don't do it. But I am saying you will get used to it quickly and then a new person not expecting the speed can get some hand damage quickly. Even people used to splitting wood get their fingers or hands or body parts bit by the splitter. So unless it is extremely slow, it is something that has crossed my mind, but now that the grandson's are helping safety is uppermost in my mind.
Surprisingly, people report no more injury's with a fast splitter (like a Super Split) than with hydraulics...
Rule #1 with the splitter is "never put your hands where they can get caught". We have had plenty of people over to help, including a lot of "kids" and they follow the rule. I also do a demo with a stick to show them what can happen. I made a graph of the total cycle time as it relates to inches of travel in high pressure mode. I think a 3" cylinder would do well in all but the toughest wood. Red is 4", blue is 3", and yellow is 2.5". The graph key shows the max force before the pump shifts. The graph itself shows the total cycle time vs inches of high pressure travel. The cylinders have a max of 20, 10.5, and 7 tons. If the 3"(blue) cylinder shifts for one inch of travel, the total time would be 7 seconds.
Stay with the cylinder you have, if you are that interested in speed, stop the ram from making a full circuit. I think you are being pretty optimistic with your projections of : "I can split 3-4 face cord an hour with the 4" cylinder. I could split about 10 face cord an hour with a 2.5" cylinder."
Who is optimistic? I can easily split 4 face cord an hour with the current setup(4 way wedge). A 2.5" cylinder would allow me to split about 10 an hour if it was straight grained wood that didn't kick the pump down. It might take 3 people, but that's fine. That's not optimistic, it's real numbers. The cylinder never makes a full return stroke, only enough to get the next piece in. I don't like waiting around while working, so a little extra speed would be nice. Is there a reason why I should stick with my current cylinder?
